No Moral Abortion?

The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts has stripped Dr. Ann Neuhaus of her license to practice medicine following malpractice allegations. She didn’t maim anyone during surgery. She didn’t prescribe the wrong drugs. She didn’t misdiagnose someone.

Let that sink in for a minute. She was presented with a 10 year old girl who was raped by her uncle. At an age where most girls are still playing make believe with dress up and Barbies, she was pregnant. The girl understood that she was pregnant, and she didn’t want to be. At ten years old, no matter how far she had progressed into puberty, there is no possible way that she could have safely brought a child to term, and being a child herself, there is no way that she could have cared for it.

If the State of Kansas had their way, this little girl would have been forced to give birth before her tiny body could have physically handled it. She probably would have died in the process.

Dr. Neuhaus has been under fire from a group called Operation Rescue. An Operation Rescue member assassinated her colleague, Dr. George Tiller in 2009, and the group turned their efforts towards Dr. Neuhaus. It was Operation Rescue that brought the charges against Dr. Neuhaus.

How on Earth is this right? After a young girl’s body, mind, and safety have been so severely violated by someone she knows and trusts, isn’t it in her best interest that she not be put through the trauma of carrying a child to term and giving birth? Isn’t it important that she be given the best care possible? What about others like her? Interestingly, I recently read an article stating that when presented with an unwanted pregnancy, many anti-abortion activists, through some impressive mental gymnastics, will still pursue an abortion, even going to the same clinics they were protesting outside of earlier in the week.

If that single instance really was the reason, I would agree that it was atrocious. However, according to the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts, the body that oversees all doctors there, Dr. Neuhaus repeatedly gave inadequate cursory interviews and referrals for late-term abortions and tried to pass them off as qualified mental-health evaluations. The clinic she worked at had never been inspected, nor had any attempts been made to seek Board compliance. I’m totally pro-choice and I have some sympathy for her intent to serve patients, but any doctor that tries to skirt the regulations of whatever state they work in is just asking to be shut down. I work in an Urgent Care clinic, and every area of service we provide gets annually inspected for state compliance. All medical practices have to be state-qualified, for the protection of patients.

Not to mention the little girl was mentally retarded. People claim to be “pro life”, but until you care more about a sapling becoming a healthy tree, instead of an acorn on the ground, you shouldn’t call yourself “pro life”.
eggs aren’t chickens, we wouldn’t say they’re alive when we make an omlette
Almonds aren’t trees, we wouldn’t say they’re growing when we roast them
cotton isn’t a sweater, you wouldn’t go shopping in a field
why should an embryo be considered a person?
Society should care more about the person who is already alive and breathing oxygen than a fetus. Especially if that fetus is there because of rape, incest, or contraceptive failure. Women should have the right to choose. This planet is faced with overpopulation. If you’re forcing more people into it because you believe that it’s wrong to kill it, you could be condemning that child to a life that never wanted it, or a life that can’t support it.